Ireland craves the Penn State football brand

Next year's Croke Park Classic in Dublin came together partly because of that country's interest in Nittany Lions football.

Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, right, and Gaelic Athletic Association director general Paraic Duffy stand on the sidelines at Beaver Stadium before the game on Sept. 14, 2013. Penn State and Central Florida will face each other in Dublin next August. (DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS -- JASON PLOTKIN)

STATE COLLEGE -- Even though it might not seem like the good old days at Beaver Stadium, with Penn State struggling to fill a stadium it used to routinely pack, the Nittany Lions' brand still carries cachet.

Irish officials wanted the biggest and best to play in Dublin next year. The Gaelic Athletic Association wanted to bring an NFL game to Dublin. But, even with the powerful arm of Steelers chairman Dan Rooney -- a former U.S. ambassador to Ireland -- working behind the scenes to make it happen, Dublin couldn't land an NFL game.

So Ireland settled for the next best thing: It signed Penn State.

Next season's Croke Park Classic, a rematch of Saturday's game between Penn State and Central Florida, is scheduled to take place on Aug. 30 in central Dublin.

Now, after the details have been ironed out, everything seems to fit together like a puzzle. Penn State delivered a destination game for its players, a group locked out of any bowl possibilities until 2016. Head coaches Bill O'Brien and George O'Leary not only have Irish bloodlines, but the two have known each other since O'Leary hired O'Brien as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech in 1995.

Organizers have unveiled a unique trophy for the game's winner -- the Dan Rooney Trophy.

Sculpted to resemble a football, the trophy is made of 4,200-year-old wood from Ireland with laces crafted out of steel that used to be part of Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium.

But forget Rooney and the Irish tie-ins to the Dublin. The dealmaker here is Penn State's brand.

Even now -- after the Jerry Sandusky child-sex-abuse scandal, the trials, the investigations and the NCAA sanctions -- Penn State still has the potential to draw a big crowd.

"Ireland's a great sporting nation and Dublin's a great sporting city," said Paraic Duffy, the GAA director general. "There is actually a much higher awareness of college football and American football there than you might expect. For example, we see quite a few games on ESPN. We saw quite a few of Penn State's game last year on ESPN."

He admitted, though, that the New England Patriots are Ireland's most popular American football team, in large part because of the Boston and Irish connection.

Notre Dame also has a large following, Duffy said.

"I think (Penn State) was our first choice, to be honest," Duffy said. "You'd be surprised at the level of brand awareness there is of Penn State. ... In terms of college football, if you ask people in Ireland to name college teams, Notre Dame and Penn State are probably the first two names."

But while the Patriots and Notre Dame have obvious ties to Ireland, Penn State has no obvious ties. Duffy said he didn't understand or know why Penn State is so popular in Ireland, but he hopes the game will cash in on the Nittany Lions' popularity.

"The stadium has 68,000 seats and 14,000 terraces. ... Certainly we do expect to sell all the seats for this game," Duffy said.

It's a unique situation and rather unusual trip for Penn State. No Big Ten team has played outside the United States since Michigan State and Wisconsin met in Tokyo in the 1993 regular-season finale.

"As he said, I really tried to get the NFL to play games (in Ireland)," Rooney said. "Now they're sort of committed to London ... but as far as the games ... I think they'll be very successful there." @jimseip; 771-2025